Free Mod Add Alternative Search Engine (e.g. Google, etc.) Search Results link on vB5 Search Results page

[glennrocksvb]

In some cases, the vB5 search results may not provide you what you're searching for in a forum. You could replace the default vB5 Search box with the Google Search box or add a Google search result link (and other search engines) together with the vB5 search results. These search engine links will redirect the user to their search results for your site.

If you are more interested in the latter, then continue reading.



Before giving you the code to accomplish what is shown in the above screenshot, let me give you first the limitations/disadvantages of doing this modification:

1. Your site must be public as search engines cannot index private pages.
2. Your site will lose branding to search engines as users are taken out of your site and redirected to search engine search results page.
3. Recent content from your forum may not be instantly available until search engines index your site.
4. This mod requires editing the Search Results template which means the changes may cause template conflicts during upgrades.
5. Since this requires template editing, this is not for vBCloud although there is another solution to implement it that will work on vBCloud.

If you are okay with the above, then proceed with these steps:

vB5 (Self-Hosted):

1. Logon to AdminCP.
2. Go to Styles → Search in Templates
3. Choose the target style/theme in the "Search in Style" dropdown.
4. In the "Search for Text" field, type widget_search_results.
5. Select "Yes" in the "Search Titles Only" radio button.
6. Click Find button.
7. In the search results, double-click the template to edit it or select it then click Customize button.
8. Find the following code (Click the Template input box and press Ctrl+F or Command+F)
   

   <vb:if condition="!empty($nodes['ignored_keywords'])">

9. Find its closing </vb:if> tag
10. Below that code, insert the following code:
    

    <vb:if condition="!empty($searchJSONParam['keywords'])">
    	<p class="alternative-search-engine-search h-margin-top-l">
    	Can't find what you're looking for? See <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q={vb:urlencode {vb:raw searchJSONParam.keywords}}+site%3A{vb:urlencode {vb:raw baseurl}}" target="_blank"><strong>Google</strong></a> search results for '{vb:raw searchJSONStructure.keywords}'.
    	</p>
    	</vb:if>

    That adds a Google search results link using the "site:" filter on search engines that search within the specified site URL which is your forum URL in this case. To add other search engine links, include the following hyperlink HTML:
    
    DuckDuckGo:
    

    <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q={vb:urlencode {vb:raw searchJSONParam.keywords}}+site%3A{vb:urlencode {vb:raw baseurl}}" target="_blank"><strong>DuckDuckGo</strong></a>

    Bing:
    

    <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q={vb:urlencode {vb:raw searchJSONParam.keywords}}%20site%3A{vb:urlencode {vb:raw baseurl}}" target="_blank"><strong>Bing</strong></a>

    Yahoo:
    

    <a href="https://search.yahoo.com/search?p={vb:urlencode {vb:raw searchJSONParam.keywords}}+site%3A{vb:urlencode {vb:raw baseurl}}" target="_blank"><strong>Yahoo</strong></a>

    Yandex:
    

    <a href="https://yandex.com/search/?text={vb:urlencode {vb:raw searchJSONParam.keywords}}+site%3A{vb:urlencode {vb:raw baseurl}}" target="_blank"><strong>Yandex</strong></a>

    For example, on this site, I added Google and DuckDuckGo. Here's the code I used:
    

    <vb:if condition="!empty($searchJSONStructure['keywords'])">
    	<p class="alternative-search-engine-search h-margin-top-l">
    	Can't find what you're looking for? See <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q={vb:urlencode {vb:raw searchJSONStructure.keywords}}+site%3A{vb:urlencode {vb:raw baseurl}}" target="_blank"><strong>Google</strong></a> or <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q={vb:urlencode {vb:raw searchJSONStructure.keywords}}+site%3A{vb:urlencode {vb:raw baseurl}}" target="_blank"><strong>DuckDuckGo</strong></a> search results for '{vb:raw searchJSONStructure.keywords}'.
    	</p>
    	</vb:if>

11. Find the following code:

12. <vb:if condition="isset($nodes['errors'])">

13. Below that code, insert the same code used in Step 10.
14. Click Save button.
15. Repeat Steps 2-14 for other active styles/themes on your forum (if any).

vBCloud:

vBCloud supports Template Hooks but unfortunately, there is no suitable template hook locations on the Search Result page. Thus, we'll just do the old-fashioned workaround for vBCloud by creating a hidden Static HTML module.

1. Perform a search on your site. Any keyword is fine. We just want to go to the Search Result page.
2. Enable Sitebuilder by toggling Edit Site slider to ON.
3. Click Edit Page.
4. Drag and drop a Static HTML module onto the page below the Search Results module.
5. Edit the Static HTML Module by clicking the Pencil icon.
6. Enter the following configuration:
   
   Title: Search Engine Links Script
   Show module at these screen sizes: (Uncheck ALL checkboxes)
   Module HTML:
   - Copy the code below.
   - Paste the code in a text editor.
   - Modify the searchEngines list in the code to remove search engines you don't want to display.
   - Copy the updated code and paste it into the Module HTML textbox.
   

   <script>
   	(function() {
   
   	 // Remove other search engines as desired and
   	 // make sure there's no trailing comma at the last search engine in the list
   	 var searchEngines = ['Google', 'DuckDuckGo', 'Bing', 'Yahoo', 'Yandex'];
   
   	 // DO NOT MODIFY ANYTHING BELOW UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!
   	 var searchInsertLocation = document.querySelector('.search-result-header .search-controls, .search-results-widget .widget-content .error');
   	 if (!searchInsertLocation) {
   	    return;
   	 }
   	 var keywords;
   	 var keywordsInput = document.querySelector('.js-search-keywords');
   	 if (!keywordsInput || !keywordsInput.value) {
   	    var qs = vBulletin.parseQueryString(location.href);
   	    if (qs.searchJSON) {
   	       try {
   	          var json = JSON.parse(qs.searchJSON);
   	          keywords = json.keywords;
   	       } catch (e) {
   	          return;
   	       }
   	    } else {
   	       return;
   	    }
   	 } else {
   	    keywords = keywordsInput.value;
   	 }
   
   	 var encodedKeywords = encodeURIComponent(keywords);
   	 var siteFilter = encodeURIComponent(' site:' + (window.pageData?.baseurl || document.getElementById('pagedata')?.dataset.baseurl));
   	 var p = document.createElement('p');
   	 p.className = 'alternative-search-engine-search h-margin-top-l';
   	 var linkList = searchEngines.map(function(s) {
   	 var url = '';
   	 switch (s) {
   	    case 'Google':
   	       url = 'https://www.google.com/search?q=' + encodedKeywords + siteFilter;
   	       break;
   	    case 'DuckDuckGo':
   	       url = 'https://duckduckgo.com/?q=' + encodedKeywords + siteFilter;
   	       break;
   	    case 'Bing':
   	       url = 'https://www.bing.com/search?q=' + encodedKeywords + siteFilter;
   	       break;
   	    case 'Yahoo':
   	       url = 'https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=' + encodedKeywords + siteFilter;
   	       break;
   	    case 'Yandex':
   	       url = 'https://yandex.com/search/?text=' + encodedKeywords + siteFilter;
   	          break;
   	       default:
   	          break;
   	    }
   	    return url ? '<a href="' + url + '" target="_blank"><strong>' + s + '</strong></a>' : '';
   	 });
   	 var links = linkList.join(', ');
   	 var lastCommaIndex = links.lastIndexOf(',');
   	 if (lastCommaIndex !== -1) {
   	     links = links.substring(0, lastCommaIndex) + ' or ' + links.substring(lastCommaIndex + 2);
   	 }
   	 p.innerHTML = "Can't find what you're looking for? See " + links + " search results for \"" + keywords + "\".";
   	 searchInsertLocation.parentElement.insertBefore(p, searchInsertLocation);
   	})();
   	</script>

   Hide Title: Yes
   
   7. Click Save button.
   8. Click Save Page button.
   9. Click OK button.
   10. Click Save Page button.

Demo:
Try searching on this site or clicking this search result:

https://vbmods.rocks/search?q=IP&sea...%3A%22IP%22%7D

Enjoy!

[Mitch]

Nice mod, but in my case sending members to a generic search may bring up info on competitive forums. Is there a way to only show results from one forum URL?

[glennrocksvb]

It only searches within your forum as it adds "site: <your forum url>" filter to the search keyword.

[glennrocksvb]

Try clicking the sample search link I posted in the first post and observe the results from Google/DuckDuckGo and notice that all the results are coming from vbmods.rocks. Observe also the keyword input on Google/DuckDuckGo contains the "site:" filter pointing to vbmods.rocks.

[glennrocksvb]

After further review, Cloud can't change templates?

Right. That's why I mentioned this:

Since this requires template editing, this is not for vBCloud although there is another solution to implement it that will work on vBCloud.

I will create a separate mod that will work for vBCloud.

[glennrocksvb]

First post updated to add the code for vBCloud.

[glennrocksvb]

I noticed that short keywords such as "a", "the", "ip" and the like that are dropped by vB, are not passed to search engines. Some of these short keywords may produce results in the search engines. I have updated the code in the first post to pass whatever user entered as keywords to search engines without dropping short keywords.

Also when vB does not find any results showing "Your criteria is not restrictive enough" or "There are no results that meet this criteria" error , it would be good to also show the alternative search engine search result link as that may produce some results. I have also updated the code in the first post to do that.

[Learning]

I tried the cloud version on my vB 6.1.3, but it doesn't seem to work.

[Mitch]

Glenn as you know I’m on cloud too. Installed the mod script and removed all search engines but google. Searched for “engine” which brings up 336 pages on my site. Clicked google and here is what I got

[glennrocksvb]

Mitch, the Google search box shows "site:undefined". It should show your forum base URL instead of undefined. I'll take a look.

Learning, is your issue the same as Mitch's? If not, please provide more details.

[Learning]

Hi Glenn,

Mine doesn't display the :

Can't find what you're looking for? Try checking the Google search results for " XYZ" for this site.

It is like it never installed.

https://www.fiat500usaforum.com/search?q=&searchJSON=%7B%7D&AdvSearch=1

[glennrocksvb]

Mitch, I have updated the code for vBCloud in the first post. Please try again.

[glennrocksvb]

Learning, I couldn't check if you installed the code properly as guests on your forum have no permission to view the Search results. Double-check the instructions and make sure you follow them correctly.

[Mitch]

That worked Glenn

[Learning]

Seems pretty straightforward. As far as I can tell, I followed the instructions. I didn't modify the script. Just copied and pasted it.

This is what comes up.